Fulham v Stoke City

Genuinely concerned about our prospects here given the draw they earned against ManUre.

Still, I think we've finally found our offensive form, the defense has been very good and Schwarzie has been superb.

I'll also go with 2-1 good guys with a brace for Dempsey.

 

Rarely does Fulham travel to a place they won the season before, but this fixture last season was the one that turned the campaign around. Glad to read Hughes is back healthy, Really curious on the back 4 for this one (guessing Grygera, Hangs, Bairdinho, and Riise). I'll go with a 1-1 draw with AJ staying hot and getting set up by Bobby Z

 

Stoke are a tough club at home and have done a good job improving and fortifying their side. Any momentum from the QPR thrashing has sailed. We likely drop this one, I'll go with 0-2...regrettably. I'm hoping for a Bairdhino-esque surprise.

 

At least a point and no major injuries is my wish.

Do I hope for too much?

 

Stoke might be missing some key players. Stoke 1 - 2 Fulham Bobby Z with a goal and an assist.

I guess Senderos is injured to we should definitely be seeing Aaron!

 

Guess the international break stymied our momentum from QPR thrashing. Disappointing, especially with so many starters fit. Time to regroup yet again.

 

Wow. Just saw the second goal by Delap. Uncharacterically poor marking by Riise. You could see that split second of hesitation then, BAM. Game over.

 

Just finished watching the DVR- so here are my unfiltered first impressions:

- Up until maybe about the 65th minute or so, I was impressed with how physical we were playing. Stoke has been known as a physical team for a while and it was nice to see us (especially Dempsey) really battling. After that point, however, it was just giving away stupid and careless fouls. Sidwell was particularly guilty of this, but even Captain Danny lost his head. It went from matching Stoke's aggressiveness to a lack of discipline pretty quickly.

- Around that same time, the defense went from bending but not breaking to losing focus. As JumpKutz noted DeLap's second goal could be chalked up to poor marking by Riise (although, it was helped along by Baird giving away a free kick in a dangerous area). Earlier on there were a lot of good blocks and last ditch challenges... and related to those last two points...

- Schwarzer did not look sharp. He was bailed out by his defense and the woodwork more than once. Part of it may have been him letting his frustration over Crouch fouling him affect his game.

- With the exception of the poor marking at the end, Riise had a decent game. He gave us our best chance and was unlucky to not score(and really, something that justified continuing to give him free kicks from that position, which he was shaky on earlier in the season). I wonder if the end was due to fatigue, he pushed forward so often that he may have just run out of gas at the end.

- To me, there seemed to be less creativity at the front when Dembele went out. Dempsey and Zamora really only had one good chance apiece and Johnson kept going wide and not being able to find anyone. Related to that, our first shot on goal was really in the 4th minute of stoppage time? Some credit can be given to Stoke's central defenders, but our attack was disappointing to say the least.

- As for the positive, it was nice to see Hughes back and I thought he had a pretty good game.

- I was hoping for a win (especially with so few Fulham matches being televised lately), but beating Stoke at Britannia is a hard thing to ask- they haven't lost there in all competitions since the last day of last season.

Time to go take out our frustrations on Wisla Krakow...

~ Steve

 

Heather I wish had that power, but had I picked Fulham I'd have just been wrong like everyone else.

As for the match, poor, poor, poor, poor, poor.

For the 2nd consecutive match, despite no bust-up with the manager :roll: , we were back in our old 4-4-2 with the wingers inverted. Stoke played a high line and were aggressive in closing down the man on the ball and we had no answers. The break clearly had an effect, as most of our passes were off and first touches were clumsy. That just played into Stoke's hands and they dominated possession. Despite that, I thought we had a slight edge on the chances in the first half. However only two looked remotely close to scoring; Zamora's header and Pennant's give-n-go with Crouch.

The second half saw more of the same from Fulham with Dempsey getting our first and only shot on target in stoppage time. We had a bit of a run where Dempsey earned a number of free kicks, but outside of Riise's post rattler, the shots and deliveries from those were poor. As the match wore on, it seemed we resorted to more and more long balls. Stoke meanwhile, menaced from corners, free kicks and Delap throw-ins. Schwarzer got away with some blunders early, but paid for being out of position on the first goal. Baird and Riise combined to lose their focus on back to back plays to concede the second.

All in all, Stoke outplayed us, out-hustled us, and Pulis out-coached Jol. Ironically we out-Stoked Stoke. We were carelessly physical and hoofed pointless off-target balls over the top ad nauseam.

A couple of thoughts:

Martin Atkinson handed out yellow cards like it was Christmas. I don't think they were all necessary, but it's a judgement call and you could argue he was trying to keep us from getting out of control with it (that didn't work, btw).

If Zamora didn't play for Fulham, I'd probably despise him. When he isn't flying high with confidence (which isn't all that often), he whines and complains far too much. His little counting gesture is bush and he's devoid of mental toughness. He essentially checked out in the 2nd half after he didn't get a few calls his way in the first. I have no clue what Jol was thinking subbing AJ for Sa. Zamora should have been the one lifted...and much earlier.

I also thought the Murphy sub was a bit late. He was laboring to keep up defensively once Stoke had us under consistant pressure and there were gaping holes in the middle as a result. He did bail Mark out on the one set piece, but anyone staying home in near post defense would have made that stop. I'd have to look at the match reports, but it seems like Danny loses the plot a couple of times a game and has earned a yellow in most of them and today was no different. Usually, the problem with subbing Murph is the vital role he plays in the offense. Today, he looked as off as everyone else in that capacity, so getting him out for better defense in the hopes of nicking a point on the road probably should have been the priority.

While he's pacy, caused us plenty of trouble and earned some of the fouls, Jermanine Pennant is softer than a cloud.

Football is not that complicated a game. The tactics and strategies that we've employed the last few years are effective and fit our squad. Yet we seem to be getting away from those more often than not under Jol. Hopefully we get that sorted.

MotM: Delap. He caused all sorts of problems on throw-ins, scored the 2nd goal and took a number of chances from the middle. Fulham MotM: Dempsey. However, no one in black had a particularly good match.

Is it just me, or does anyone else hate Fox's new pop-up stat boxes? They're too big, they're poorly located and they put them up at the most inopportune times. During the replay? Really Fox? :evil:

Hope that one was just rust and we get our form back Thursday. COYW!

 

Martin in Nashville (such a knowledgable fan( is applauding your take on Bobby Z, Matt. Not sure I totally agree w/you, but his body language this year (besides QPHa) has noy inspired confidence.

Glad to see Aaron back, but bummed to see Moose get hurt (2 years in a row at that dump).

Heather, congrats on all the work you put into training for the marathon, sorry you got hurt.

 

Thanks for the write-ups Steve and Matt. Very decent of you to bother after such a match. Ag, I love it when Zamora counts the time the goalie has the ball. I've always enjoyed his attitude.

For me the big take-aways are

Bad - Dembele has to leave with a knock, complete bummer. When he is in there with Bobby, AJ, Demps, etc we are a handful up front. Anyone hear if he has an injury? For such a big boy, he seems to get injured alot.

Good - Aaron is back and appeared as solid as ever.

-Ag nailed the result.

 

Very impressed. When DC is not resurrecting important websites, or doing everything that a 2 yr old cant do for himself, which is basically everything, she is running marathons. Bummer about the groin injury.

 

One shot on goal for Fulham. Ouch.